Disability Rights Commission Act 1999

Enforcement of court orders

23 (1) This paragraph applies to any order made by a county court or the sheriff under section 5(8) or under any provision of this Schedule.

(2) Section 55 of the [1984 c. 28.] County Courts Act 1984 (penalty for failure to give evidence) shall have effect in relation to a failure to comply with an order made by a county court to which this paragraph applies with the following modifications—

(a) for subsection (1) there shall be substituted—

“(1) Any person who fails without reasonable excuse to comply with an order made by a county court under section 5(8) of or any provision of Schedule 3 to the Disability Rights Commission Act 1999 shall forfeit such fine as the judge may direct.”;

(b) subsection (3) shall be omitted (but without prejudice to the operation of paragraph 4(3)(b) of this Schedule); and

(c) in subsection (4), for the words “the party injured by the refusal or neglect” there shall be substituted the words “the Disability Rights Commission for expenses incurred or wasted in consequence of the failure to comply with the order concerned”.

(3) Where the sheriff finds a person to be in contempt of court in respect of the failure of a person to comply with an order made by the sheriff to which this paragraph applies—

(a) notwithstanding section 15 of the [1981 c. 49.] Contempt of Court Act 1981, the sheriff shall not commit the person to prison; and

(b) the sheriff may grant decree in favour of the Commission for such amount of any fine imposed for the contempt as appears to the sheriff to be appropriate in respect of the expense incurred or wasted by the Commission (including the expenses of any proceedings under this Schedule) in consequence of the failure to comply with the order.

(4) If the Commission applies to a county court or, in Scotland, to the sheriff to enforce an order to which this paragraph applies, the court may modify the order.